Grafted cactus?

[Lithops11]

Hi I was wondering were the colorful heads that are grafted onto the hylocereus come from and how do they survive in a natural environment without a host?

[Aeonium2003]

Unless the Gymno scions are purple, they are unable to survive on their own roots. The purple scions have enough chlorophyl to survive.

[Lithops11]

So could I remove a purple one from its host and if I did would it survive and what would it’s care requirements be?

[DaveW]

The chlorophyll deficient red Gymnocalycium "Hibotan" was a seedling a few days old grafted at matchhead size before it died. All succeeding ones are pups or offsets off the original then repeatedly grafted, so all are simply clones of the original. Obviously since then many others rogue seedlings with various degrees of chlorophyll deficiency and patterning have been propagated the same way. As Evan says, whether they will thrive on their own roots depends on if they have enough chlorophyll making tissue, and even if surviving on their own roots just how vigorously they will grow depends on how much.

Variegation in cacti is also usually caused by an inability of the variegated parts to produce chlorophyll. Provided enough chlorophyll producing tissue survives they can grow on their own roots. If not they too need to be grafted.

"The term “variegated” comes from the word variegatus in Latin which means composed of various colours. This beautiful array of colours is caused by some of the plant’s cells lacking chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that works to convert light into energy the plant can use."

[loyall]

Thank you DaveW for so frequently sharing interesting and useful knowledge on this forum.

[Lithops11]

Hi I have another question how do they grow large enough to graft without a host?

[Aeonium2003]

Well, I've heard the story goes that a Japanese nursery man spotted some albino seedlings in his batch of Gymno seedlings. He micro grafted it to Selenicereus (hylocereus stock), and once that grafted plant put out pups, those pups could be used for grafting. At that time, these plants were seen as a novelty. Anyways, from what I heard, different people went through this process, and eventually the different colors were selected.

[greenknight]

Seedlings can grow large enough to graft on just the food stored in the seed - as Dave said, match head size is big enough.

[Lithops11]

Ok that all makes sense.